PATH board member Fred Were

Fredrick Namenya Were, MBChB, MMed, PhD

PATH Vice Chair; Professor of Pediatrics and Child Health, University of Nairobi / Kenya

Fredrick Were, MBChB, MMed, PhD, is a Professor of Pediatrics and Child Health specializing in Newborn Medicine. He currently serves as Chief Executive Director/Chief Executive Researcher at Kenya Paediatric Research Consortium (Keprecon), a nongovernmental organization focused on research and project implementation, and Head of Research at the University of Nairobi’s Department of Paediatrics.

Previously, Professor Were served as Dean of the School of Medicine and as Acting Principal at the College of Health Sciences at the University of Nairobi. He also served as National Chairman of the Kenya Paediatric Association from 2002 to 2012 and as a committee member of the World Association of Perinatal Medicine from 2008 to 2011.

He currently holds various board roles, including membership for the International Pediatric Association and the International Society of Tropical Pediatrics and serving as President of the Eastern African Paediatric Association. Additionally, he chairs the Oversight Committee for the Network for Education and Support in Immunisation and is an active member of the World Health Organization’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts.

Concurrent to his board leadership roles, Professor Were also serves as an informal advisor on immunizations to the Ministry of Health, where he has been pivotal in the development of the National Immunization Policy and Health Workers’ Guide to Vaccines and Immunization. He was appointed Chair of Kenya’s National Immunization Technical Advisory Group, and he received the Elder of the Order of the Burning Spear award for his service.

Professor Were has published more than 100 papers on newborn medicine and health systems, with a special interest in the nutrition of low-birthweight infants. He is committed to child health advocacy, particularly in increasing childhood immunization coverage and public awareness.

Professor Were received his MBChB, MMed, and PhD from the University of Nairobi. He trained and qualified as a pediatrician, and he later proceeded to Monash University’s Medical Centre in Melbourne, Australia, to specialize as a neonatologist.

Professor Were is the Vice Chair of PATH’s Board of Directors and a member of the Executive Committee and the Governance, Impact & Responsibility Committee.

Appointed to the board: March 2021